


Alone for the Holidays

by autobotscoutriella



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: (kinda sorta?), Canon Compliant, Christmas, Friendship, Gen, Holidays, Loneliness, Post-2007 Movie, except Bee using his radio, which shouldn't count because canon is inconsistent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:14:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21677332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autobotscoutriella/pseuds/autobotscoutriella
Summary: Mikaela and Bumblebee both understand what it's like to be away from their families over the holidays.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21
Collections: FandomWeekly (2019-2020) Writing Challenge on Dreamwidth





	Alone for the Holidays

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for [FandomWeekly](https://fandomweekly.dreamwidth.org/278106.html) prompt "Family Gatherings".
> 
> The alternate title for this fic is "Merry Chrysler", as suggested by a friend who is slightly too fond of puns.

Mikaela sighed and erased the lines on her sketchpad yet again. Even with the reference pictures Ratchet had kindly provided, diagramming a Cybertronian fuel line system was harder than drawing one for a non-sentient vehicle.

_Someone remind me why I wanted to learn this stuff, again?_

Because she wanted to be involved with the Autobots, and she’d assumed having previous mechanical knowledge would give her a head start. It really hadn’t. _A degree in anatomy would have been more useful. Not that I’m ever going to get one of those._ Sure, studying Cybertronian fuel lines on December 23rd wasn’t the most festive tradition—in fact, it was pretty depressing if she thought about it—but at least it was something to do.

Her phone chirped, just barely louder than the background drone of the TV. Mikaela scooped it up; it was a text from a contact labeled only with a bee emoji. _U home?_

_Yes,_ she texted back, wondering why the message was coming from Bumblebee and not Sam. She hadn’t expected to see either of them before the next day’s planned Witwicky Christmas Eve Celebration (which sounded more ominous than it was probably meant to). _Thought you were at family thing?_

_Sam is. i’m not. Come outside?_

…Huh. Mikaela had generally assumed that whatever Sam was doing, Bee was involved somehow.

Whatever was going on, it had to be better than doing self-inflicted homework. Mikaela grabbed her sweater off the back of the chair by the door—even Nevada got cold, at the end of December—and tucked her phone into a too-small pocket.

Bumblebee was parked almost at the bottom of the outside stairs, with no sign of a driver anywhere. His radio hummed to life as soon as she approached the driver’s-side door. “Weeeeeeeee wish you a merry Christmas…”

“Okay, okay! I did not need that stuck in my head for a week.” Mikaela slid into his front seat the moment the door opened. It was less weird to sit in a car than to stand outside and talk to it. “Don’t tell me you drove here by yourself.”

The song cut out, replaced by an audio clip. “Affirmative, captain.”

“Really? So much for the _rules._ Thought that was against them.” Mikaela couldn’t help a smile at Bumblebee’s indignant beep. “So what are you doing here?”

Bumblebee rarely used communication devices other than his radio, but there must have been a shortage of relevant clips. A rapid series of texts followed, explaining that he was planning to visit the temporary Autobot base for an early holiday drop-in, and did she want to come along?

“Don’t base visits have to be cleared by the military?” _That_ had been a hell of an adjustment, realizing that parts of her life were now beyond classified.

_i’m an Autobot. They have to let me in. U can come too._

Mikaela wasn’t sure about that, but it wasn’t every day someone invited her on an impromptu visit to a classified military operation. “Okay, sure. Let me leave a note for my aunt and grab my purse, okay?”

It was an easy, relaxing drive, despite the usual holiday traffic on the highway. Mikaela sat in the driver’s seat, but kept her hands off the wheel except when another car ended up beside them for longer than a moment or two. Bumblebee was a better driver than she was anyway, and it would have felt _weird_ to try to drive him.

They had been on the road for half an hour in companionable silence, aside from Christmas music playing over the radio, when it occurred to her that it was a little odd for an alien robot to be making holiday visits. “Hey, can I ask you something? Are you guys actually doing a _Christmas_ visit, or is this some Cybertronian holiday that happens to match up with the timing?”

The music cut out briefly to play back a clip that Mikaela thought she recognized from some holiday movie. “It’s _Christmas_ , Mom!”

“Okay, so it’s actually Christmas. But why? I mean, not even all humans celebrate it. Lots of people don’t. I guess I assumed you guys would have your own traditions.”

The next radio clip seemed to be spliced together from two different voices. “Family is the most important thing in the world, kid. Any excuse for a party!”

Mikaela had to think about that for a moment before it finally clicked. “So…you just want to see your family. And the holiday’s a good excuse?”

“You got it!” That sounded like a clip from a game show.

“Oh.” She hadn’t thought about it from that angle. Bumblebee _was_ the only Autobot who didn’t live on-base. He spent a lot of time with her and Sam, but…

But hanging out with friends, no matter how good they were, wasn’t quite the same thing as having your whole family all together. She knew that. She’d spent the last three Christmases with friends or with her aunt, and none of it had been the same as having her dad home. Of course Bumblebee wanted to visit his family.

“So why’d you bring me? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you asked, but…wouldn’t you rather see your family by yourself? Without extra humans hanging around?”

The music skipped briefly, as if Bumblebee had been about to respond and changed his mind. A second later, her phone chirped a text alert.

_Because u r my friend & ur family isn’t around today. i didn’t want u to be alone._

Mikaela took a deep breath, and realized that there was a lump in her throat keeping her from responding. She patted the dashboard and swallowed a few times. “…Thanks. Thank you.”

_U r welcome._

There was a moment of quiet, broken only by the opening bars of a Christmas carol playing over the radio. Then Mikaela wiped a hand quickly across her eyes and patted the wheel. “Thanks. Let’s go see how the Autobots celebrate Christmas, huh?”

**Author's Note:**

> Bumblebee uses his radio/text to talk in this because I didn't want to deal with canon inconsistencies in when/whether he has his voice back. (Just pick one, Hasbro! Either his voice gets fixed and stays that way, or you have a mute character now and you should stop trying to fix him and look into some disability theory maybe.) 
> 
> Also, it amuses me that Bumblebee texts with perfect punctuation and chatspeak spelling. He's almost got it.


End file.
